Tesla posts Q4 results with 3 pct revenue increase

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Top U.S. electric automaker Tesla Inc. on Wednesday reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023 with total revenue up 3 percent year over year to 25.17 billion U.S. dollars.

The electric vehicle company reported fourth quarter earnings of 71 cents a share, a little down from the market expectation of 73 cents.

In 2023, Tesla's total revenue reached 96.77 billion dollars, a 19 percent jump year over year.

The company's quarterly net income attributable to common stockholders (GAAP) improved to 7.93 billion dollars, a 115 percent increase year over year. Its yearly net income was 15.0 billion dollars, a 19 percent increase year over year.

In the fourth quarter, Tesla produced approximately 495,000 vehicles and delivered over 484,000 vehicles. In 2023, its vehicle deliveries grew 38 percent year over year to 1.81 million while production grew 35 percent year over year to 1.85 million.

Tesla had 2.06 billion U.S. dollars in free cash flow at the end of the fourth quarter, up 45 percent year over year.

After its scheduled global factory shutdown in the third quarter, Tesla's global production reached a record annualized run rate of nearly 2.0 million vehicles in the fourth quarter.

The company's Megafactory in Shanghai of China resumed normal rate production in the fourth quarter. Production of the updated Model 3 ramped to full speed in less than two months, Tesla said.

"Cost of goods sold per vehicle declined sequentially to slightly above 36,000 U.S. dollars. Even as we approach the natural limit of cost down of our existing vehicle lineup, our team continues to focus on further cost reductions across all points of production, from raw materials to final delivery," Tesla said in the financial report.

In the outlook, Tesla said it is currently between two major growth waves. The first one began with the global expansion of the Model 3/Y platform and the next one will be initiated by the global expansion of the next-generation vehicle platform.

"In 2024, our vehicle volume growth rate may be notably lower than the growth rate achieved in 2023, as our teams work on the launch of the next-generation vehicle at Gigafactory Texas. In 2024, the growth rate of deployments and revenue in our Energy Storage business should outpace the Automotive business," it noted.